Winds of Change - Yellow Dust

Reading the papers from back home and listening to CNN, one gets the impression that the concern about the environment has finally reached the general public. The fact that it is now the #1 election topic in Canada clearly states that. But is the Government ready to show some vision? Like Charter of Rights and Freedoms vision? Probably not, being the minority government that it is.

Lucky for most Canadians, environmental crisis is not obviously upon us yet.

When we arrived in Korea in April of 2006, we spent a week of orientation in Gwangju, a city of 1.8 million in the south western province. It was in the middle of the Yellow Dust Storms, and for two days, the afternoon sky was dark with sand. The entire month, cars were covered in yellow dust, and car washes were inundated with eager customers. Andrew Leonard at "How the world works" sums it up like so:

It's April in Korea, which means it is time to don surgical masks, seal windows tightly shut, and keep a weather eye out toward the Chinese border. April is yellow dust storm season, when a noxious brew of Gobi desert sand particles and assorted effluent from China's industrial development comes roaring out of the west and dumps down on Japan and Korea... (more)

And so Koreans have to debate staying home from work (which people in this hard working nation NEVER do), kids can't go outside during recess, and a large number of people now dawn those surgical masks to keep their lungs clear. Is it really that big a deal? Well yeah, yeah it is. One of my friends here was just admitted to the hospital this week with pneumonia. It's pretty serious stuff.

All this is not just a reminder that we in Canada should be doing more on an individual, Municipal and National level, but that we also need to be part of the global effort. We are much closer to a crisis that will irreversibly change the way we live - a crisis we can better relate to than the catastrophic ones discussed Al Gore's "An Incovenient Truth". Although, those may be coming too.

The unrewarding world of Trust

While our trip to China was fantastic, there were many chances for it to go horribly wrong. Well, maybe not horribly, because we did play it safe in staying in the big cities, but there were scams abound. Luckily, we had read up on a number of them.

Walking through People's park in Shanghai, a nice girl calling herself Lily, came up and started talking English to us. She was from inner Mongolia, going to University somewhere in China, but was in Shanghai on holiday, and was excited to practice her English with us.

Steph had just read a warning online about scams where a woman will come up and befriend you asking to practice English. The girl then asks (usually a single young virile man) if he wants to come to a small tea shop or bar with her. They order drinks (harmless?) and in some cases the girl's friends make an appearance. Before the foreigner knows it, their company has left, and the foreigner is charged for 6 "traditional" cups of tea costing $20 US each. Since they are at a "privately owned" establishment, they are stuck with the choice of paying the bill or being carted out in a stretcher. This couldn't happen to us though, could it?

After talking with "Lily" for a while, we decided to head to People Square... to which she was a little too eager to join us. Little alarm bells, or paranoia? As we settled onto a bench in People's park, we continued to have an easy conversation with Lily, learning about Mongolia and China's growth. We were tired from all the people, so we decided to say goodbye to Lily and head back to our hotel... And that was when she said "Oh, but I was hoping we could go to this nice little tea shop I know..."












Yeah.

Goodbye Lily.

And it's one experience like that that makes you paranoid (rightfully so) about everyone, even though we met some really nice people in both Shanghai and Beijing. But, from the street vendor selling cake who measured portions by weight using a bar, a sliding weight and his finger as the fulcrum (yes, I just used the word fulcrum), to the German lady who had to physically tear her suitcase out of a cab that had taken her "sightseeing" through Beijing, to the general joys of bartering at markets, you have to always be "aware" when you are travelling.

On a side note: The cake was worth double the price, our cabs were all awesome because we kept with Beijing taxi's orange cabs and the markets were great because we keep telling ourselves that we got great deals! (Like my $32 fake TAG!)

Beijing: 2008 Olympics bound! (China: Part 2)

After a fantastic couple of days in Shanghai, we headed to Beijing, the capital of China. Steph, again in all her wisdom, booked us a sleeper room on a 12 hour overnight train to Beijing. Aside from being subject to some very aggressive begging in the train station, the whole experience was great and painless. One old man sat beside each person in the waiting room, grunted and yelled while banging on the metal chairs and poking people. I wasn't too pleased, when he pulled that routine on us, let me understate.

The 12 hour train ride seems to take only moments to get us to Beijing. Immediately upon arriving, we realized that Beijing is BIG. Our hotel, The Harmony, was located just a block from the train station, was supposed to be 3 blocks from Tiananmen Square... We soon realized that these blocks were the same as 4 conventional blocks by 4 blocks, and that Tiananmen was 40 minutes away!

Tiananmen is enormous. Even with the tens of thousands of people milling around (being Lunar New Year), the square and Forbidden city surprisingly did not seem all that rammed...well, it did, but it wasn't like a herd of cattle. Getting tickets was another story. Queuing is still in its infancy in China, and its enough to drive any Westerner absolutely mad. You really need to stake out your land and be bigger than everyone else (hehe)... and don't let it get to you. I say this, but on my last day, I was so fed up with people rushing onto the subway without letting people off, that I lowered my head and ploughed over 5 guys trying to beat each other onto the train before the doors had full opened. I digress.





The Forbidden city (39°54'59.94"N 116°23'25.82"E) is the center of the city where royalty spent centuries ruling. It now hosts a mind blowing number of Chinese treasures amongst the countless temples located within its protective walls. Unfortunately for us, many of the temples were covered with sheeting and scafolding as resoration efforts were underway for the upcoming Olympics. We even had a coffee at the "forbidden Starbucks" located inside city, which is still causing an uproar amongst traditionalists. It was delicious, but I think someone budded in front of Steph in that line too. Grr!

Over the next couple of days we visited the Pearl Market, where I bought a "real" TAG watch for $30, and Steph found numerous teasures, the Temple of Heaven, the Dirt Market (Antique and trinket market great for haggling), we watched an amazing acrobat show, and went on a 10 hour Great Wall tour, that only gave us 1/2 an hour at the Ming Tombs and less than 2 hours at the Great Wall at Juyongguan (the rest of the tour we were dragged through countless Jade and Pearl shops). We made trips to the breath taking Beihai Park and the White Pagota, with its amazing view, and the Summer Palace (39°59'48.98"N 116°16'3.51"E). Again, the size of all of Beijing's treasures are on such a huge scale, it's tough to put into words.

What was visible everywhere, is branding and work going on in preparation for the 2008 Olympics. Posters and volounteer programs go hand in hand with the enormous amount of construction. Mega-block upon mega-block of traditional Hutongs were being gutted to be replaced with new apartment complexes and comercial complexes. Our guide told us that those displaced were given modest compensation that wouldn't come close to covering a new apartment.

Two of the centerpieces for the Olympics are the main stadium and the aquatic center. The Bird's nest and the Water Cube are just two of the amazing buildings that Beijing is hoping to have done for their "Green Olympics". With all the work to be done, its hard to believe they will be ready... but then again, the Chinese have a record for amazing feats.

DASHAN!!!

While we were in China, I was amazed at how many people wanted to take "sneaky" pictures of me. It's one thing to take the photo of someone tall, but totally another when people sneak up beside me, or stand 20 feet in front of me while someone else tries to frame a picture of them with ME in it. I mean, this happens in Korea, but not with as much effort as the Chinese were trying.

No, I'm not paranoid, because they definitely weren't subtle! Funny, but not subtle. 4 days into our trip in Shanghai, a girl (who happened to be the one who tried to take us to her "Special Tea cafe") told me I looked a lot like DASHAN. WHO?

Dashan is known in Canada as Mark Rowswell, where he is almost a complete unknown. What's his claim to fame? He came over to China in the mid 80's and learned how to speak Mandarin Chinese unbelievably well... as well or better than many Chinese. While this isn't so odd, a chance to perform comedy on a television show made him a national celebrity overnight. Apparently 550 million people were watching him the night he appeared TV. And he can still live the life of an unknown back home. Appropriately, he has been hired to be the Canadian Team Attaché for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, even though no Canadian has a clue who he is. Pretty sweet work there, Mark!

So if you hear a story with the title "Dashan sticks tongue out at picture takers!" or "Dashan mysteriously grows 1 foot taller overnight!", don't blame him!

Shanghai: Out with the old!

Do I ever work? The answer is a resounding NO. And I love it.
After an amazing time in Australia, I came back to Korea, rested a bit, went to school for a week (not to teach, but just to sit and "attend") and then left for China.

I know everyone says "How did you get Steph?", and "You sure are lucky" and "You don't deserve her, you tall..." (Yeah, some people go a little overboard), but she outdid herself this time. Steph planned all the flights, hotels, the sleeper train and the sights to see in China! All I did was show up and pose for pictures. Sweet deal!

Shanghai is only 2 hours by plane, but it takes 5+ hours to get to the Seoul airport from our town, so no flight is a short one. Again, no one minds any inconvenience when they are heading off on vcation. We arrived in Shanghai, and immediately noticed what everyone told us: Everything looks new and everything is built on a massive scale. The city of 18 million is striving to be the financial center and the prime international destination in China, and all I can say is - Wow.

After a 150Y ($25)/40 minute cab ride from the biggest airport I have ever seen (and a equal sized addition almost completed to its side) we arrived at our Hotel; The Panorama (31°14'46.70"N 121°29'12.94"E). Located right in the Bund district, on the Huangpu River, we were in the middle of everything! To make matters even better, we were even upgraded to a suite, which was far better than my fears a week earlier when we heard the hotel had a recent "change in management" and was unable to confirm our reservations!

Every morning we ate breakfast at the top floor restaurant, overlooking the Bund and Pudong districts. It was unreal. We spent our 4 days walking the riverfront, shopping on Nanjing street (with every other person in China), sitting in People's Park and People's Square (31°13'52.69"N 121°28'11.17"E), braving the crowds at the "Old Shanghai" Yuyuan markets (31°13'47.33"N 121°29'11.54"E) (you begin to see that Markets were a focal point for one of us!!!), gazing at the Oriental Pearl(31°14'29.31"N 121°29'43.68"E) and taking riverboats up the Huangpu. Steph even took me up to the 56th floor of the Jin Mao Building (31°14'14.28"N 121°30'4.61"E) (The tallest hotel in the world) for my birthday dinner!

Shanghai is developing at a ridiculous pace. Blocks upon blocks of Hutongs (old traditional houses) lie in semi-gutted conditions, walls broken down and roofs removed to make them inhospitable, clearly in wait for another enormous apartment complex to take over the land. The progress of this can be seen clearly in pictures displayed in the center of the new financial district of Pudong(31°14'22.96"N 121°30'7.78"E). Pictures taken every year show the "Out with the old" process from 1993 and on... Amazing.


Visiting Shanghai on Lunar New Year is a wild experience to say the least. Lucky for us, being as tall as we are, the crowds practically parted as we walked through them. Unlike in Korea, the stares were usually followed with a smile, as well as a friendly "Nihow". It was an incredible place, but still exhausting.


Check out the rest of our pictures!